I'm wanting to ship a Rem 700 action to a gunsmith to have some work done and it has the factory barrel still attached.
If I cut a grove in front of the recoil lug to relieve the torque on the barrel threads, will the barrel still be too tight to unscrew without an action wrench?
I'm not going to reuse the barrel or the recoil lug, so, I'm not worried about damaging them.
It would save on shipping to send just the action and bolt.

I don't believe it will help. If you do not want the barrel, just ship it all together and let him/her keep it. I would sell it on ebaaaa to get a little $$$ back.

:you could probably get by but you will need some heat on the action also.

Is that to break down the thread sealant/locker or just to expand the receiver a small amount?

If you have a lathe you can cut a relief cut in front of the lug a few thou away from it with a parting tool and unscrew it, common practice

Remington does put some type of thread locker on their threads. The relief cut will lesson the amount of force needed but I think you will still need something to help get it loose. I just took a barrel off of a 40X and had to do the relief cut. A little heat and I still needed an action wrench to break it loose. It did not take much force but more than I could have done by hand.

Just hacksaw it off a couple inches ahead of the forward edge of the shank...enough to give the 'smith something to grab on to.

The 'smith will be happy, it's easier to ship and you get an extra jack handle or pry bar. -Al

Since you evidently do not have an action wrench, Al has the best option, in my opinion. If you lived nearby, I'd take the barrel off for you. You might find someone to do that for the barrel and the recoil lug.

Wouldn’t this result in an SBR? Not that anyone would want to use it that way but I’d hate to get in a bind over it.

Yea that's the dumb ads answer of the day, send him the barreled action

If there's no rifling, it's not a rifle.

Might still be illegal- short barreled shotgun or something. Don't really don't know.

I can't believe a 2" piece of sawed off barrel sticking out of an action being sent to a gunsmith to cause an issue.

Wayne....'ya can't make this stuff up.

Hope you're stayin' warm, buddy. -Al

was working a gun show years ago, A dealer was selling actions with barrels cut back to 5", the BATF was at his table the next day, closed him up

All that to save what, a couple bucks? Pull the barrel and sell it separately.

Would it still be a BATF violation if the cut off barrel was filled with epoxy?

maybe if you welded it shut, but ATF make there rules up as they go, we all know this, not worth the chance, pull the barrel